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NTSB Makes Recommendations to FAA in the Wake of Wrong Airport Landings

It might sound more absurd than dangerous when you read that sentence, but
when a jumbo jet mistakenly lands at an airport with a 6,000-foot runway
instead of the intended airport with a 12,000-foot runway, the absurdity moves
beyond danger—that’s the difference between life and death.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has
investigated two recent incidents in which an airliner landed at the
wrong airport. Based on the agency’s findings, it has made two safety
recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): one asks the FAA
to clarify air traffic controller landing protocol when there are multiple
airports in the same vicinity, and the other asks for modifications to air
traffic control software that warns controllers if aircraft descends below a
minimum safe altitude.

Pilots attempting to land at McConnell Air Force Base
(shown at the top) had their work cut out for them. All three air strips
pictured are facing the same direction. The lowest runway pictured is where the
Atlas Air flight actually landed.

Last year the NTSB made recommendations to pilots on how they could best
avoid landing at the wrong airport. This year, the NTSB narrowed its focus to
air traffic control.

On January 12, 2014, Southwest Airlines Flight 4013 mistakenly landed at M.
Graham Clark Downtown Airport in Branson, Missouri, 6 miles away from its
intended destination of Branson Airport. The pilots of Flight 4013 contacted
air traffic controllers at Branson Airport when the plane was roughly 60 miles
away. An official told the flight crew the airport was at their “11 o’clock
position and 15 miles.” Radar contradicted this—the airport at that heading was
actually M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport, not Branson Airport.

The runway that Southwest Flight 4013 ended up landing on was only 3,738
feet long. The runway it was supposed to land on at Branson was 7,140 feet
long. Luckily—perhaps even miraculously—no one was injured in this mishap and
the plane wasn’t damaged.

On November 21, 2013 an Atlas Air flight destined for McConnell Air Force
Base in Wichita, Kansas mistakenly landed at Colonel James Jabara
Airport. The right runway at McConnell was 12,000 feet long. The runway
that the Atlas Air flight actually landed on was just over 6,000 feet long.
Aside from the significantly shorter runway length, the NTSB found that several
other airport operations happened at the same time the Atlas Air flight was on
the wrong runway, compromising safety even further. Again, folks aboard
this flight were lucky,as no injuries were
reported.

Based on these and several other recent incidents, the NTSB is asking the
FAA to change air traffic control procedures to only clear aircraft for landing
after successfully passing all other airports in the vicinity so there can be
no confusion. The FAA will respond to the NTSB’s recommendations within 90
days.

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